Boats in the northeast US that aren’t yet out of the water will be heading toward land and likely end up “on the hard” within the next few weeks. Daylight is at a premium, our clocks are about to gain an hour, and the fall 2011 boat shows are working their way down the coasts. At times like these a boater’s thoughts turn to winterizing chores, plans for necessary off-season repairs, new gadgets for next season, and good books to help us stay in the boating spirit. In this issue of NFTB we do our part to help you in all of these departments, as described below.

John Conlan outdoes himself this month in his “WINTERIZE” article From the Parts Department. If your plans include putting your boat to sleep this winter, then John’s extensive experience will hopefully help you do so.

What better way to plan for winter than by anticipating, and enjoying, a great boating book? In this issue we discuss a unique and extremely well done new book with an awful name, Bridge Resource Management for Small Ships that would make an excellent gift for any serious boater. Many of us recognize a good movie or book when its message resonates for days or weeks after its finished. Such is the case for the subject of our book review this month.

For those readers who did not get the chance to attend a regional boat show this season, we present a snapshot of the 2011 Newport Boat Show. The two new boating products discussed in the article are meant to highlight the benefits of innovation, and cost containment, that are both so important in today’s financial environment.

Among our articles this month you’ll find NFTB’s first Reader Survey. We hope you will take a minute to fill out this on-line survey, as your feedback will help us grade our performance, and plan for the future.

Two days prior to this issue’s publication date, and one day before Halloween, the northeast US was rocked by frozen wind and blanketed by several inches of snow. The storm prompted a reader to send the photograph that accompanies this month’s nautical poem, and this month’s guest poet to share his thoughts on passing storms. We trust you will enjoy the poem Lesson.

Regular readers may notice that our promised article on “electrifying your boat”, a discussion of the latest solar technology, is missing from this month’s table of contents. This review and an article on Boating Suite, a widely used “ships log” App, must wait until next month. We are sorry to report that we ran out of time to prepare these articles because of a death in our family. We will include these articles and more, including holiday greetings, when we return on December 1st with the next regular issue of NFTB.